Moonglass

He’s been around long enough to realize that most guys are a bunch of jerks.”
    I rolled my eyes. “Oh, please. Now you sound just like him.” This wasn’t the direction I’d envisioned this conversation taking. I needed to bring his focus back to me, so I turned slowly around so that I was facing the ladder, leaned my chest against it, and looked up at him casually. “Anyway, are you going tonight? To the bonfire?”
    “Yeah, I’ll be there.” Tyler turned to spit out a sunflower seed shell . “ You shouldn’t be, though.” He cleared his throat and laughed. “That’s probably why James invited you. He’s a pot-stirrer.”
    I suddenly felt not so cute anymore, deflated, just like that. He spit another shell into the sand, then looked down the beach. I should just turn around and walk away, I thought. Take a hint. But his attitude pissed me off. I looked out at the water and the outline of Catalina directly in front of us. “My dad and his buddy took their boat to Catalina for the night. I think it’ll be fine,” I said flatly. It was probably safe. They’d gotten off to a late start and would most likely go out for beers or something afterward.
    Tyler didn’t take the bait. “Oh, yeah? well, in that case he’ll probably have one of his buddies checkin’ in on you. Or all of us.” He smiled down at me.
    Condescendingly, I thought. “Maybe some other time, like when we all don’t have to answer to your dad.” Heat crept across my chest and settled on my face. He really didn’t like me. At all. Jerk. Humility peeled my fingers from the railing while at the same time pride made me open my mouth. “Wow. I guess a middle-aged lifeguard supervisor is a pretty scary thing.” Again, it wasn’t all that impressive, but I had to say something. I walked away, wishing I had thought up something better.
    “Bye, Anna!!” he called. I didn’t turn around, but waved my hand over my head, more out of annoyance than anything else. Then I loosened my ponytail and let my hair fall down to my back, shaking it out a little with my fingers as I walked away. I had plans to make.

CHAPTER 7
    The sun dipped into the ocean as we pulled into the Muddy Creek lot. Ashley squinted behind her giant sunglasses and scanned for the best place to park.
    “Does it matter where I go? I don’t want to get a ticket or get carjacked or anything.” I smiled. “Nobody’s gonna carjack you. Besides, if you get a ticket, I’ll just have my dad take care of it.”
    “All right, all right. It just looks so … remote. Is that the right word for when it seems, like, far away or something?” I laughed. “Yeah, that’s what it means, but I wouldn’t call it remote with that shopping center over there.” I pointed to the lights across PCH.
    “Whatever.” She pulled into a spot, or rather, two spots. “I hope we brought enough goodies. I grabbed everything I could think of that would be good for a bonfire. Do you think someone will have a corkscrew?”
    “For what?”
    “For the champagne. It was the best thing I could sneak out of the house. My mom has a big stash of it for her parties.”
    “Um, Ash, you don’t need a corkscrew for champagne. You know how it pops and all ?” I couldn’t help but smile. “And … why’d you bring champagne for a bonfire, anyway?”
    She looked at me like I had just asked her why the sky was blue, then said simply: “It’s festive!” She pulled her lip gloss out of her purse, reapplied, and then smacked her lips. “I figured there’d be some cute lifeguards to lug it down. Come on, Anna. That’s supposed to be your thing.”
    “Yeah, we’ll see,” I said, looking around. “None seem to be falling at my feet just yet.” I opened the door and scanned the parking lot, hoping to see one in particular. Ashley popped the trunk of her car and walked around to the back. I couldn’t help but stare for a second at the perfect magazine picture that she was. She looked like an ad for Southern California rich, with her three-hundred-dollar jeans and gauzy white top. The front sections of her blond hair were twisted back into a hippyish do that left the rest of it wavy and expertly tousled. She smiled her sunset-lip-gloss smile, and for half a second I thought about the lack of logic in bringing a beautiful, friendly girl along when I was trying to hook Tyler.
    I pulled down the sun visor and checked myself in the mirror. I had the kind of skin that tanned easily, and by this